• About
  • Archives
  • Bread/Baked Goods
    • Almond Cake (made with xylitol)
    • Almond Cake (Tarta de Santiago)
    • Ardys’s Sourdough Spelt Bread (overnight method)
    • B & B Mug Muffin
    • Bread and Butter Pudding
    • Buckwheat Pikelets (pancakes)
    • Donna’s White Fruitcake
    • Flourless Chocolate Cake
    • Gluten Free Currant Scones
    • Gluten Free Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
    • Grain-Free Granola (my version)
    • Grain-free, French-style Apple Cake
    • Grain-free, Italian Pear Cake (Torta di Pere)
    • Hot Cross Scones (grain free)
    • Mug Muffin (grain free)
    • My Revised Sourdough (Winter)
    • Nut and Cinnamon Baked Muesli (granola)
    • Pumpkin bars
    • Super Single Muffin
    • Toasted Almond Muesli
  • Favourite Quotations
  • Food
    • Almond Milk
    • Babaghanouj (grilled eggplant, Turkish style)
    • Beef Cheeks Ragu
    • Beef Jerky
    • BLT Salad (with green dressing)
    • Brussels Sprouts with almonds and currants
    • Carrot Cake Style Bites
    • Cashew Milk
    • Cauliflower Cheese and Ham
    • Chicken Breasts with Rosemary
    • Chicken Liver Paté (*adapted from taste.com.au)
    • Chicken Salad
    • Chocolate Pud
    • Cold Brew Coffee
    • Cucumber, Corn, Coconut + Peanut Salad
    • Dukkha
    • Gado Gado (adapted from Charmaine Solomon)
    • Grain-free grilled cheese
    • Green Dressing
    • Grilled Eggplant Strips
    • Grilled Salmon
    • Homemade Ketchup/BBQ sauce
    • Kale with Chilli and Garlic
    • Layered Vegetables with cream
    • My Best Pulled Pork
    • My Pulled Pork (using Romertopf clay baking dish)*
    • Not-Nonna’s Meatballs
    • Pappa al Pomodoro
    • Pasta e Fagioli with Escarole
    • Pickled Eggs and Beets
    • Pumpkin Pie Frappé
    • Ricotta – homemade
    • SANE-eats
    • Slow Cooked Beef Ribs
    • Stuffed Mushrooms
    • Summer Minestrone
    • Taco Salad
    • Turkey/Chicken and Cheese Salad
    • Vietnamese style salad and Dressing
  • Instagram photos
  • Travel Photos

ardysez

~ surrender to yourself

ardysez

Tag Archives: Alice Springs

one year ends, another begins…

09 Sunday Jan 2022

Posted by Ardys in Alice Springs, Australia

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Alice Springs, Australia, life, nature

January 1st, my traditional walk to see in the new year, and all was bright, dare I say, promising. And then I caught myself, not hoping for too much, just focusing on that moment of sunrise, welcoming in the day/month/year. So many of us are being reserved and not expecting much that is different and yet clinging to a small shred of hope that things will begin to ease somewhat this year. I can’t even imagine what it was like for the world to live with polio for 12 years before there was a vaccine for it. We are all pretty weary. I can hear it in people’s language and tone. Even for those of us who have not suffered severely, we have still been effected. In our case here in the Centre of Australia, the virus has really only just arrived to a great degree. We are living with a mask mandate, lockout and regulations too numerous to mention. Because things are so bad in the southern states our supply of food and other things have grown more inconsistent. But not desperate.

January 1, 2022

The last few months of 2021 I meant to write a kind of ‘catch up’ post for the year. I like for the blogs I follow to catch me up every now and then on what they have been doing and how their life has gone. But I didn’t. So here is a bit about my last year with a few suggestions for this year. My journey learning to paint with pastels continues, though the end of the year saw quite a few bumps and delays in the development of things, partly because I took a course for 6 weeks. Briefly, I learned a few things however mostly it was a refresher in basic colour theory, value and composition. These were valuable but I realised when I finished the course that the style of work the artist taught wasn’t taking me in the direction I wanted to go. Also, I realised all of the participation in the Facebook group (required) was just too time consuming and not productive for me. So I took myself off, back into my own direction and I can feel it is the right thing to do. But now I need time to be doing it without travel and without quarantines and PCR tests soaking up time.

Evolution of work…the first on the left done Feb-21, the middle one shortly thereafter, and the one on the right done mid December 21, 10 months after the first one.
‘Naked Ladies’ after a small rain shower.

Reading proved to be a handy diversion for all the liminal time presenting itself this year. I thought I’d share with you the titles of my favourites and a very brief explanation in case you are interested. There were a few books that were good but I hesitate to recommend in the current climate of disease and death, so I won’t, and a number of disappointments that I either finished and was disappointed in how they were resolved, or just didn’t finish at all. My feeling is, life is too short to read a book that just isn’t doing it for me. So I don’t. A couple of years ago I started to realise my favourite genre was memoirs. However, this year I refined my search to ‘well written memoirs that read like novels’, and then I got off on a little tangent of well-written-memoirs-about-hiking. Goodness knows I wasn’t expecting that. I’m not a hiker but as you know I do like a good walk, so perhaps I’m living vicariously with this type of book. Whatever the reason, I hoovered through the last three selections like nobody’s business. Here’s the list, commencing in Jan 21, finishing Dec 21:

  • The Book of Ebenezer Le Page by G.B. Edwards – this is an older book and reads like a memoir, though the author insisted it wasn’t – life on the island of Guernsey around WWII. It is not exciting but it is a good story and written in a way I could picture everything about the place and people and the voyeur in me enjoyed it.
  • Flesh Wounds by Richard Glover – makes a person look at their own family differently, I suspect.
  • The Dog Who Came to Stay by Hal Borland – a lovely dog story with a nice ending (trust me)
  • The Salt Path by Raynor Winn – I ate this up. Great story and very real people with very real struggles, hiking the Southwest Path in England.
  • The Silent Wild by Raynor Winn – The next chapter of life for the two people of The Salt Path. Almost as good, and still well worth reading.
  • A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson – This made me chuckle and the story and factual information along the way was very interesting to me. It is about hiking The Appalachian Trail in the eastern USA. If you’ve seen the movie (and I don’t advise it) read the book, it is so much better.

I have kept up the garden I built in May 2021. Probably typical of most gardeners, whether novice or experienced, I tried a few new things—had some failures but a few successes. I’m sure I would have been more successful but I’m not a real gardener, to be honest. I think I might do more except for the heat. Working in the heat depletes me and consequently, I have no energy for other things. However…with fairly consistent, but minimal, effort I have become the Queen of Greens! My best efforts other than with herbs, have been with beets and chard/silverbeet. Also rocket/arugula grows like crazy, but a little of that goes a long way with me. As you can see in the photo, Don’s lime tree has filled in the espaliered branches nicely and we are hoping next season to see some limes on it. In a year when our grocery stores have not been able to keep up consistent supplies of fresh vegetables, the silverbeet has proved very handy. It has about finished now that we are into the very hottest part of summer and I will let things rest until March or April when the weather cools a bit again.

Greens are the thing…photos taken a couple of months back

Just over a week into the new year I walked the same path at the same time of the morning as on the first day, noting that the sun was already rising later, which augers well for those of you wishing for longer, warmer days in a few months, and those of us wanting cooler weather as well. Far in the distance I heard a human voice, calling out—loudly. I thought perhaps they called a dog as sometimes people let their dogs off leash to run about in the early hours when no one else is about. But the shouting continued, as if a one sided conversation was happening. I squinted into the dawn lit path ahead (see above photo for approximate lighting) and eventually a small figure appeared, shouting and gesticulating in the direction of the hills, and walking briskly. Being the only other human in sight I decided to err on the side of caution in case the person was drunk or unwell, and I quickly changed route. Reasonably certain I had avoided any possible problem, I walked briskly in the same direction as the other person was headed but on parallel paths, rather than the same path. About two thirds of the way home I had to cross over and again heard the shouting voice. When I turned she was only a few feet over my shoulder and suddenly quiet. It was a young, maybe 20 year old indigenous woman, not appearing drunk and in fact quite tidy and attractive looking. But so close… I wondered how, almost like an apparition, she had made up that distance and was just over my shoulder. As soon as I was passed her she veered onto a different path and began loudly talking again, but not shouting as before. I had seen enough to know she wasn’t wearing earphones or carrying a mobile phone, and then I realised…she had been talking to the spirits of the land. Some of the more traditionally raised indigenous are taught to talk to the spirits, especially if they are moving through someone else’s land. They are telling the spirits what their business is and telling them to behave, which was why she had seemed to shout at the hills and valleys along the path. Once I realised what was going on and she meant no harm, I thought ‘I want some of that!’ I want to shout at the spirits and tell them to ‘shape up, stop messing with us and let us live without all your tricks and surprises’. Maybe this should be added to our armoury in dealing with the pandemic. It might be a bit loud, but it wouldn’t hurt anyone and it might make us feel better.

Meanwhile, be well.

Talk to the hills…that ghost gum looks like a true survivor.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

green and gold*…

01 Wednesday Sep 2021

Posted by Ardys in Australia, Creativity, nature

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Alice Springs, Australia, inspiration, nature

Whoosh! chartreuse chatter

lifts into a golden evening.

Imagination did not prepare me for

the spectacle of wild budgies as they

heave and push through spent grasses

veering to and fro

as if one mind.

Such sights are rare in the flesh.

In videos transmitted by lines and pixels,

the living sound and colour cannot

be matched by our devices.

So let the earth dust your shoes

and the dew settle on your brow.

It is so worthwhile.

* Today, September 1 is the first day of Spring, also Wattle Day. The golden wattle are in blossom in the southern states but here I have captured our version of green and gold (our national colours), featuring wild budgerigars and the winter’s dried, golden grasses. I’ve been feeling a little poetic lately too…and by the way, a ‘chatter’ is what a large flock of budgies is called!

Wattle in the Mt. Lofty Botanic Gardens near Adelaide, South Australia.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

reflections on tree day…

30 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by Ardys in nature, photography

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

Alice Springs, Australia, nationaltreeday, photography, Planetark National Tree Day, Red Centre of Australia

IMG_9869Today is Planetark National Tree Day in Australia. As most of you know I love trees and photograph them often. It might even be genetic; my father grew Christmas Trees for a living! Here’s a little reflecting of some passed tree portraits:

Melaleuca leucadendra, Weeping paperbark
Melaleuca leucadendra, Weeping paperbark
Evening at Honeymoon Gap, Christmas Day (not a photo of the day)
Evening at Honeymoon Gap, Christmas Day (not a photo of the day)
Ghost Gum and friend.
Ghost Gum and friend.
Eucalyptus trees lining dry Todd River bed.
Eucalyptus trees lining dry Todd River bed.
Eucalyptus and MacDonnell Ranges in early morning
Eucalyptus and MacDonnell Ranges in early morning
Corkwood in late afternoon light
Corkwood in late afternoon light
Having an Ansel Adams moment
Having an Ansel Adams moment
eucalyptus-shedding-winter
(185) Eucalyptus tree shedding bark in winter

Go out and enjoy a tree or two today. xx

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

a frosty few words…

01 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by Ardys in nature, photography, Uncategorized

≈ 23 Comments

Tags

Alice Springs, nature, photography

IMG_9406As you may recall I wrote about the hail storm we had a couple of weeks ago. I have been busy with insurance claims and organising repairs but all in all things are going well. This week we had another ‘ice event’ that was just too much fun to photograph, to be missed. The frost did some damage but not quite as bad as the black frost we had last winter. However, it must be said, between what the grasshoppers ravaged and the hail shredded, the frost has furthered the case for bulldozing everything and starting over. Our corner of town is looking very sorry for itself at the moment.

Still. There is beauty to be found.

frost-droplet-grass

That moment between ice and droplets

The morning the frost was heaviest, the temp was 2C (35.6F). That was the morning I took most of these photos and when most of my toes were lost to all feeling. They have regained it, thankfully. One of the few difficulties taking photos with the iPhone is the ‘touch screen’. It doesn’t like cold digits nor ones appropriately garbed in gloves. However we persisted, with the occasional ‘sotto voce’ epithet disappearing as ice crystals into the atmosphere.

Here you are, epithet free, my version of frost in the arid lands of Alice.

IMG_9370
IMG_9393
IMG_9389
IMG_9345
IMG_9357
IMG_9360
IMG_9365

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

hail hath some fury…

18 Saturday Jun 2016

Posted by Ardys in Alice Springs, nature

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

Alice Springs, hail storm, nature, photography, weather event

This was not the blog post I intended to publish today. It will wait for a few days. I thought you might like to see what is going on in this little corner of the world. In the background are the sounds of sweeping, chain saws, leaf blowing, power sprayers and pumps. The sounds of humans cleaning up.

Yesterday started out blissfully domestic for me. Having only returned two days prior from a week away I was baking bread and ironing all the washing I’d done since our return. I’m always happy to have a day at home when I don’t have to go anywhere. Also, we had rain the night before, and I’d taken a few photos of the sun sparkling on the moisture laden plants in the garden.

morning light with moisture
morning light with moisture
first attempt at spelt sourdough focaccia with salted rosemary crust
first attempt at spelt sourdough focaccia with salted rosemary crust

And I worked on the aforementioned blog post, so a nice bit of creativity mixed with domesticity.

the approaching doom

the approaching doom

Despite the predictions, around 2pm I noted that we had not had any rain as yet, and there appeared none on the horizon. By 3.30 my husband rang from his desk at the Uni saying, have a look at the sky toward Mt. Gillen, it’s very dramatic. I said, yes, I’ve just taken a photo of it. Everything had changed and was looking ominous, but no severe storm warnings that I was aware of. By 4pm all hell broke loose. The hail and wind was upon us before I knew what had happened. I had been at the stove, cooking soup for dinner when I realised I shouldn’t be there, near the window. I ran for the hallway, the strongest point in the house. From there I could see the ferocity of the wind and I could hear the hail smashing the skylights in both bathrooms at either ends of the hallway. I was deeply hoping it didn’t smash the windows. We have a lot of double glazed glass. The 90kph winds were driving icy projectiles at a nearly horizontal angle so that they bounced off the glass and piled at the base of the windows or walls, or were carried away in the river of water flowing down our breezeway.

remains of the large tree

remains of the large tree

There was a large tree at the northwest corner of our property, but it was on the neighbour’s land. Twice before, both times when I was in the house during a storm, huge limbs had broken out of the tree and fallen on our patio and damaged it, one nearly missing the corner of the house. Our neighbour didn’t seem to want to do much about the tree so it regrew. But now virtually the entire tree was laying horizontally across his pool, breaking the fence and damaging tiles and the cover. Certainly that tree will not be bothering us any longer, nor will we get the much appreciated shade from it.

water mixed with ice, the mountain no longer visible

water mixed with ice, the mountain no longer visible

Finally, my husband was able to get home from the Uni, through flooded roads that were unrecognisable due to water coverage. He told me one house up the street from ours had water flowing through it! By the time he arrived I had set up buckets and mopped up places where the wind had driven the water through any likely crevices. A rammed earth house is not known for it’s tight fitting joins, but we’d never in 15 years had anything quite like this.

leaf litter blown against the glass with the ice beginning to melt below and sun peeking out

leaf litter blown against the glass with the ice beginning to melt below and sun peeking out

sky through the sky light

sky through the sky light

The rain and hail came in waves, with a bit of sun peeking through, just to relax us into a false sense of security. Sure enough, both bathroom skylights resembled swiss cheese and there were small hail stones and debris on the floors. But really, if the rain was going to come through, they were the two best places for it to happen because there were drains in the floors, and the tiles had a wet proofing membrane painted on underneath them, so they are likely to dry out ok. Not so sure about the joinery in one of the bathrooms as it seems to have absorbed quite a bit of moisture.

After we had cleaned most of what we could, and called emergency services, I got back to making the soup. Once again, I was at the kitchen sink, topping and tailing green beans. I glanced over my shoulder, toward the mountain. In a break from the precipitation the sun shone through. As the warm rays hit the piles of hail and ice, fog rose and an etherial light settled over the whole area. Neighbourhood children came running out from everywhere to play in it. It was as if Mother Nature was trying to make up for the havoc she had just wreaked.

ice turning to fog

ice turning to fog

Emergency services came about 9.30pm last night to assess the damage, but they said the crews were all so busy it would be a while to get to us. I’m sure there are many people worse off than us so we will wait our turn. They told us there was another storm cell coming. They were right. More hail and more pieces of skylight joined them on the floors, but nothing as bad as the first wave.

The plants in the garden that had recovered surprisingly well from the grasshopper plague are now laying in shreds again. My newly planted herb garden has had the shock of its young life.

But all in all, we are lucky, and we know it. We await the next surprise Life has in store for us.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

in the grip of gidgee…

06 Monday Jun 2016

Posted by Ardys in Alice Springs, nature, photography

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

Alice Springs, Australia, nature, photography

Cue the dramatic theme from Jaws…da-dum, da-dum… Alice Springs has been in the grip of an invisible threat…the Gidgee. Friday morning we awoke to a smell of very strong LPG gas throughout the house. It was alarming at first, until we realised, outside it was worse. That was the clue. It was the annual invasion of the Gidgee, or Acacia Cambagei. Releasing their odours far and wide these trees always raise comments and pulled faces among the residents; but this particular day, when we had heavy cloud cover and rain to trap the smells close to the earth, it was extra special–as in awful.

Still shrouded in cloud Mt Gillen
Still shrouded in cloud Mt Gillen
Revived ferns in the rocks with cloud covered Mt Gillen behind
Revived ferns in the rocks with cloud covered Mt Gillen behind
IMG_5921

My plan to have eggs for breakfast was abandoned for something that didn’t require the gas cooker to prepare them. Ugh. In fact, eating itself was almost abandoned, except that I am a hungry girl in the mornings! After breakfast we went into town to buy groceries. There was no escaping the smell as it even permeated the processed air in the grocery store. But outside was worse. We returned home feeling quite bilious.

The local ABC radio announcer swears she left a note for her husband before going to work on the early shift to ‘have the gas bottle checked today’, due to the smell! She is new to town and has not experienced the joys of the Gidgee. Nor have most of us experienced it quite to this degree. I pity the poor tourist who has lobbed into town for a few days, wondering why the travel literature did not warn of the smell of Alice Springs!

I sacrificed myself to the challenge of locating a Gidgee tree to show you. Smelly though they are, finding one proved difficult, as they are fairly nondescript in appearance. Since they are an Australian native tree I thought my best chance to photograph one would be at Olive Pink Botanic Garden. If I could smell it, I could find it. But it was more difficult that it sounded; in fact, gave myself a headache sniffing it out. I tramped the trails and studied the tree names, pointing my nose skyward like an animal tracking its prey. Sniff, sniff. No Gidgee here.

As I searched– the Sturt Desert Pea…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

White Cypress Pine…

White Cedar with moisture and light

White Cypress Pine with moisture and light

Bush Tomato…

australia-bush-tomato

Bush Tomato blossoms with moisture

Eucalyptus…

Eucalyptus Orbifolia with moisture drops

Eucalyptus Orbifolia with moisture drops

  …revealed their droplets of adornment, remaining after the rain and cool temperatures. These were rare sights in our normally arid lands.

Acacia Cambagei, or Gidgee, or stinking tree!

Acacia Cambagei, or Gidgee, or stinking tree!

And then all at once ‘ugh’ there it was, that repugnant aroma at once a happy discovery, but also instantly making me sick again. I had sniffed it out–literally. Fortunately the intense smell that blanketed the town only lasted while the cloud cover was low. The now localised aroma was at least escapable. And so I did, escape home to warn you…beware the grip of the Gidgee!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

the coming and going…

13 Friday May 2016

Posted by Ardys in Alice Springs, Food, gardening, Life

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

Alice Springs, Australia, life, nature, photography

early morning sky after rains

early morning sky after rains

We are blessed with amazing natural beauty here. It is almost criminal to take it for granted. But we do. Sometimes. Take the clear blue skies we often have… I long for some cloud now and then, not to mention a little rain. Clear blue skies have an implied imperative that one must get out and make the most of it. But all I want some days is to curl up with a book and listen to some music mingled with the sound of drizzle on the metal roof. I got my chance last weekend, which included Mother’s Day. Since I couldn’t be with either our daughter or my Mother, listening to rain, reading and floating between cups of coffee, ginger tea and preparing one of our favourite meals (here) was a fine situation to have.

after the weekend of rain
after the weekend of rain
rain on the ponytail palm
rain on the ponytail palm
vestiges of a cicada summer
vestiges of a cicada summer

Rain brought the early signs of winter with it. The vestiges of summer are pretty depressing after the grasshoppers decimated our citrus trees. The lime is an early producer so we had ample limes, but the lemons, which I use much more often, don’t look like they will be able to mature with the lack of leaves for some photosynthesis. (don’t be confused by the photos, the lemon is the green fruit-left and the limes are the yellow ones–I know!) My herb garden is looking very sad, I won’t bore you with a photo, but suffice it to say, most of it will be dug out soon and the soil and irrigation replaced, along with a renewal of plants. I did have one victory, however. The bay tree I worked to save from scale infestation last summer has yielded a nearly perfect harvest this year and will certainly last me another year.

unripe lemon on denuded tree five months ago
unripe lemon on denuded tree five months ago
Waterlogue edit of home grown limes and bay leaves
Waterlogue edit of home grown limes and bay leaves

Baking weather has returned and my fourth ever loaf of homemade sourdough spelt bread has emerged miraculously from the oven this morning. Maybe I’m just easy to please after not being able to eat bread for years, but it is pretty much my dream loaf.

Loaf four.
Loaf four.
Sourdough spelt bread 'chips'-great for dipping or snacking
Sourdough spelt bread ‘chips’-great for dipping or snacking

Last night the heat bag reappeared and was warmed and woven around my feet. The little mug I save for warm milk and honey was again filled and slowly sipped, until I was warmed inside and out. Such is the change of seasons and our delight in their coming and going.

my comforts

my comforts

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

seeing the light at the end

28 Wednesday Oct 2015

Posted by Ardys in 365 Photo Challenge, Alice Springs

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

365photochallenge, Alice Springs, Big Magic, creativity, photography

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for the photography challenge. The land is dry and dusty. The sun’s rays have to filter through a haze. And flies. God, the flies are horrible already this summer. The worst we can remember, and that is saying something where the national salute is a person waving away the blow flies! And somehow, sleep eludes me on a regular basis at the moment.

I think it is the full moon.

You think I’m crazy. I understand.

Regardless, I am managing to get myself up at the usual time of 5.15., so that I have time to go through my stretches and have a glass of water before heading out for the morning walk.

Wildflowers in early light

Wildflowers in early light

Fortunately we are still getting relatively cool mornings, helping to keep me awake as I walk–although the word somnambulist does come to mind and worries me a little. I usually follow the path being lighted by the rising sun, because even nearly comatose, I am still a Light Chaser. On Monday I carefully picked my way through the dry, prickly scrub as I walked to the top of a small rocky outcrop. The sunlight was gentle, filtering through a scrim of cloud near the horizon. It never ceases to amaze me how stunningly beautiful the light can be, even on things I have seen and photographed over and over. It strikes me as a little miracle and lifts my spirits like the best chocolate cake!

Sending kisses!

Sending kisses!

A few days ago, I nearly freaked myself right out of being able to continue. You know how we sabotage ourselves sometimes, unintentional though it may be? A good friend who is also an artist reminded me it is often when we are at our lowest point, or think we have nothing left to give, that we are about to make a breakthrough.

My best friend told me, “It is a marathon and you can see the end, you can do it”. I needed to hear that from her. She has run marathons. She knows. I also needed to see this at my feet a couple of mornings ago. Emerging from the earth, the Universe encouraging me with kisses.

And then, as books often do, one came into my life at the perfect time. It is called Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. She understands the creative process and the work ethic that goes with it— the fear and the self talk, all of it. She understands. Her words nudged me forward…stay in the moment—stay open to all the little clues and magic coming your way—do the work.

‘The work’ is getting up and out every single day, opening myself to seeing the light and the photo, capture it, edit it and post it. And on a day when I am somehow upright after only a few hours sleep, and I think perhaps I’ve used up all my little miracles from the Universe, there is this. Parigi. (Pair-ee-gee) Parigi is Italian for Paris, and that is this lovely little guy’s name. The lady who walks him in this pram each day told me, his owners didn’t want him any more because he was old and too much for them to look after. So she adopted him. He is ‘really old’ she said, but wasn’t quite sure how old. It is too much for him to walk, so she puts him in the stroller and walks him, occasionally removing him from the conveyance so that he can attend to his ablutions, and feel the grass under his feet. You can see the water bottle in the top, and underneath the blanket is an ice pad that she freezes and puts in the pram in the heat of summer, so he can stay cool. I think she is cool. What a kind person.

Parigi, of the pram

Parigi, of the pram

Rain tree and thirsty honey bee

Rain tree and thirsty honey bee

And before the walk finished on that very tired morning, I was lured by a heady aroma that could only be a ‘rain tree’. I looked to my side, and sure enough, there it was in full blossom. Trust me, it is the closest thing to rain we have seen in many months. The honey bees were loving it, and I think maybe they were a little bit tipsy, or maybe that was me in a sleepy stupor…The bees were flying right up in front of the iPhone anxious for long drinks from the centre of the flowers.

And then this…another of one of my favourite subjects, the feather catcher.

'feather catcher'

‘feather catcher’

I am living proof, you can do things even when, at times, you wonder how.

Day 300 is passed. I am taking nothing for granted. But I can see the light at the end and I am focusing on that. Always the light. I can promise you, on day 366, I will miss it, but I will take a well deserved reprieve from the self-imposed pressure. And I can also promise you there is a nap in my immediate future.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

In My Kitchen – September 2015 (how the Ghan nearly ruined my Spanish lunch)

02 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by Ardys in In My Kitchen

≈ 21 Comments

Tags

Alice Springs, Australia, fish, salad, Spain, The Alhambra, The Ghan

Five years ago Don and I visited Granada, Spain to see the Alhambra (so named because of the Arabic name for its reddish walls). Our very first meal, aside from the Hotel’s fabulous breakfast, was lunch in a cafe adjacent to the Alhambra. It was a sunny spring day and the outside tables were perfect. Uncertain about ordering meals, and various food intolerances making the uncertainty worse, I settled on a salad of oranges, fennel and cod. It turns out this is a very Spanish dish and we saw it a number of other times on various travels in Spain.

Breakfast pastries to die for
Breakfast pastries to die for
Interior at Alhambra
Interior at Alhambra
Classic Moorish arch at Alhambra
Classic Moorish arch at Alhambra
Paella in Granada
Paella in Granada
sculptured fruit display
sculptured fruit display

Since fennel and navel oranges are usually plentiful, and reasonable quality, here in winter, I decided I wanted to try and recreate my memory of the dish. The first challenge was to find some deep sea cod. It is not common here, not being near the deep sea and all! As I recalled, the Spanish original used salted cod but I’m not familiar with using that, soaking it etc, so I decided if I could find some fresh, frozen cod or other white sea fish, I would use that. I couldn’t see any cod in the groceries, so our butcher who sells a lot of good quality sea food was the next stop, and miracle of miracles, they had some. (I have not seen even the slightest hint of any since)

The morning I planned to make the salad I woke around 4am to the sound of the Ghan* train coming into Alice–about 12 hours late! They sound their horn upon arrival, even at 4am, it would seem. We are over a kilometre away from the station but in the quiet of the morning I could still hear it. My first thought was for the poor passengers who obviously had spent more time aboard than they had planned. Part of the Northern Territory adventure, I suppose.

Peeking through the fence at the Ghan in Alice railyard

Peeking through the fence at the Ghan in Alice railway yard

Since I was awake early I turned on the heater in the bathroom and while it was warming I snuggled back in bed for a little while. Winter in Alice is quite cold overnight. After showering and having breakfast I decided to do my grocery shopping early, although 9am would not be early in the summer! As soon as I was inside the grocery I could see the other problem with the Ghan’s late arrival. The produce section had many vacant gaps, the most worrying of which was the one where fennel is usually kept!! Despite best efforts to keep things on schedule, once in a while the Ghan hits sections of the track that have washed out, or some other difficulty. Such is the story of a train that runs through hundreds of kilometres of scrub and bushland.

I had bought the fish, and the orange, but what could I do without fennel? Time for some culinary conjuring! Somewhere in the back of my mind I seemed to remember that celery and fennel were from the same genus, though different species, and thinking that sliced very thinly they would have a similar texture, I decided to try celery in place of the fennel.

My humble recreation

My humble recreation

Cod baked with olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon

Cod baked with olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon

I baked the cod with only lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper and thinly slice lemons on top, tied in baking paper at 165C for about 20 minutes. I let them cool to room temperature because it was a salad. Meanwhile I peeled and sliced the orange thinly and used a mandolin to get the celery slices very, very thin. Once assembled on a plate I added another sprinkle of salt, a drizzle of good olive oil, and a squeeze of half a lemon. The original Spanish dish had thin slivers of red Spanish onion through it as well, but onion is something I’m unable to eat so I left it off. The result was delicious, nevertheless. I thought I had lost the photo of that special lunch, but after making what I remembered the dish to be like, the vast recesses of my grey matter led me to the five year previous photo! Next time I will add the radicchio (if I can find it), eggs and olives, now that I see what my memory had forgotten!! Now you know why I love photos so much!

That memorable meal

The glorious original

(*Ghan is short for Afghan, and the train is named for the many Afghanistani cameleers who helped settle Central Australia)

Special thanks to Celia for hosting our monthly kitchen get together. Visit her through the link and find other interesting kitchens around the world.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

rain in the red centre

15 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by Ardys in Alice Springs, nature, photography

≈ 24 Comments

Tags

Alice Springs, Australia, nature, photography

Washed of ochre dust

immodest saturation

against sapphire sky.

Eucalyptus air

and tears, cling to nodded heads

gratefully renewed.

Beneath duvet folds

lay Dreamtime Yeperenye

Winter rain cleansed.

Clouds shroud MacDonnell Ranges like a duvet
Clouds shroud MacDonnell Ranges like a duvet
sturt-desert-pea
Sturt Desert Pea after rain
australia-bush-tomato
Australian Bush Tomato after rain
Reflective pool after the rain
Reflective pool after the rain
australia-corkwood-blossom
Corkwood blossoms against mist covered Ranges in background
australia-cassia-blossom
Cassia blossoms bow under weight of rain
sturt-desert-pea
closeup of rain cleansed Sturt Desert Pea

One thing about my haiku poetry, it may not be very good, but it’s short!! The poem was inspired by a post by The Practical Mystic and the photos by the first rain we have had in six months here in Alice. It transforms the land like nothing else. Thanks for reading! 🙂

As always, if you tap or click on a photo once, the gallery will appear in a larger form for you to enjoy. Tap or click at the end and you should return to the post.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...
← Older posts

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 717 other followers

Recent Posts

  • what can go wrong…
  • my summer of wintering…
  • one year ends, another begins…
  • call me late for dinner…
  • to see…
  • the bricklayer and the painting
  • green and gold*…
  • the dream, so far…
  • when I’m dead…
  • adjustments and such..

Archives

Categories

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Instagram

No Instagram images were found.

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • ardysez
    • Join 717 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • ardysez
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: